Nile Rodgers commented that a collaboration was "something we've [Daft Punk and Rodgers] talked about for a long time. We've respected each other endlessly." He had first met with the duo at a "Daft-Punk-listening party" in
New York City several years ago and noted that a series of near misses and scheduling conflicts had delayed their chance of collaborating ever since then. Daft Punk later visited Rodgers' home for an informal
jam session, which led to an official collaboration. The duo eventually invited Rodgers to the
Random Access Memories sessions at
Electric Lady Studios in New York City, which was coincidentally the studio where the first
Chic single had been recorded, and also located in the neighborhood where Rodgers grew up. He expressed that working with Daft Punk "[felt] like [...] working with contemporaries" and that they motivated each other to excel when collaborating on the album. He remarked that the duo's style has evolved whilst simultaneously exploring music's past, expressing that "they went back to go forward." Most of the vocal sessions for the album took place in
Paris, whereas the rhythm sections were recorded in the United States. Sound effects were newly recorded with the help of film experts from
Warner Bros. The duo produced most of the vocoder tracks in their own private studio in Paris, with later processing done by
Mick Guzauski at
Capitol Studios.
Giorgio Moroder elaborated that Daft Punk would take "a week or so" to find an adequate vocoder sound, and an additional few days to record the lyrics. Gonzales, who played keyboards for "Give Life Back to Music", stated in an interview that his contribution to the album was recorded in a one-day session: "I played for hours and they’re gonna grab what they grab and turn it into whatever." He explained that Daft Punk prompted him at the piano in the same manner that a film director coaches an actor, and Gonzales left the Los Angeles studio without knowledge of what the final product would sound like. He later elaborated on the filmmaking analogy by saying that his presence on the album was the equivalent of a
cameo appearance rather than a lead role, and that "it requires a great film director such as Daft Punk to use the person properly." Gonzales previously recorded a cover version of Daft Punk's song "Too Long" that appeared on the 2003 album
Daft Club. In June 2013, an unofficial remix of "Give Life Back to Music" was released by producer
Nicolas Jaar and musician
Dave Harrington of the band
Darkside, as part of their remix album
Daftside. Jaar had previously released remixes of tracks by
Grizzly Bear and
Brian Eno. == "GLBTM (Studio Outtakes)" ==